Case Number 26532

PARKLAND

The Charge

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. This is the
story of what happened next.

Opening Statement

Sometimes we focus so much on one thing that it's easy to forget the other
things around it. Consider the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We
focus so much on the Zapruder film that it's easy forget there was a guy named
Zapruder who actually shot it. We focus so much on Lone Gunman versus Conspiracy
Theories that it's easy to forget that Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was
killed and buried within three days of the shooting. We focus so much on Kennedy
being hit (courtesy of that Zapruder film) that it's easy to forget he didn't
die immediately; he lived long enough to make it to the hospital, where he died
soon after.

Parkland, named for that Texas hospital where Kennedy was taken after
being shot, seeks to direct attention to those details that are often missed by
telling the stories of the events that occurred in the immediate wake of
Kennedy's shooting.

Facts of the Case

Like the rest of Dallas, Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti, The Ides of
March) is excited for the arrival of President John F. Kennedy on November
22, 1963. Unlike the rest of Dallas, Zapruder films the president's motorcade
and that fateful shooting. He is haunted by the event and hounded by the media
-- and the Secret Service.

Dr. Charles "Jim" Carrico (Zac Efron, The Paperboy) and
Nurse Doris Nelson (Marcia Gay Harden, Pollock) are on duty at Parkland
Hospital when an army of Secret Service agents storms the ER with the
president's dying body. They and the rest of the staff make every effort to save
the Leader of the Free World.

Robert Oswald (James Badge Dale, Iron Man 3) is going about his
average workday when he hears the news on the radio that his brother, Lee Harvey
Oswald (Jeremy Strong, Zero Dark Thirty), has been arrested for the
shooting of the thirty-fifth president. His and his mother's (Jacki Weaver,
Stoker) lives are upended, only to then be to turned inside out two days
later when Lee is shot and killed.

The Evidence

I love the idea of this film, and it sets up for something
special.

First, it takes a unique perspective on a well-documented story. Like I
said, it's easy to stop thinking about the JFK event once his head snaps
"back and to the left" in the film footage. Next, it follows the
perspectives of three unique, but critical-to-history, participants: Zapruder,
the Oswald family, and the staff at Parkland Hospital. (The film also teaches us
that Parkland is not only where JFK was treated, but Oswald too). It even has a
tight timeframe (three days) and an endpoint so perfect in terms of storytelling
(Oswald's burial) that in a work of complete fiction it would strain belief.

Unfortunately, the finished product doesn't live up to the idea. Yes, it
covers all three storylines, and it even delves into how territorial the
assassination became among Texas law enforcement, the FBI, and the Secret
Service. At 87 minutes, with no fewer than seven major characters, there isn't
enough time or space to properly develop any of these threads.

The most interesting of the four stories is Zapruder's, and it is the
best-told (a relative statement) in the film. This man didn't just witness a
horrifying moment in history, he recorded it and it subsequently bore his name
for all time. Parkland takes care to show at least the emotional impact
to Zapruder (It doesn't hurt that Paul Giamatti is the actor in the role). The
other three stories are varying depths of shallow because they simply don't have
the time to grow.

Some of this blame could be assigned to the studio, which might not have
wanted another three-hour long Kennedy film (a la JFK). Some of it must
be assigned, though, to writer/director Peter Landesman (Trade). In his
first major effort, Landesman makes some mistakes that I think cost the film.
There is the aforementioned lack of story development, but there are also scenes
where he wastes some of that precious time on trivia. The prime example of this
is a scene that involves the challenges of making room on Air Force One for
Kennedy's coffin -- in five minutes. Granted, it's one of those things most
viewers would never think of, but it does nothing to advance, or add depth to,
the story. Landesman is also fond of the handheld camera, a filming device that
grows tired quickly. It was so pervasive, I was reminded of TV's The
Office. Speaking of TV, some of the dialogue is made-for-TV clunky, as
well.

Landesman shows some keen directing skills, though. He is smart enough to
avoid using imagery that we are used to seeing in films or shows about the
Kennedy assassination. He never shows the whole Zapruder film, or even the kill
shot; only brief snippets early in the motorcade's route. He also avoids using
the well-known footage of anchorman Walter Cronkite announcing Kennedy's death
and nearly tearing up in the process. From a technical perspective, there is a
sublime shot of a longer snippet of the Zapruder film as seen in the reflection
of Zapruder's glasses. It's the money shot of the film and worth a rewind (which
I did).

That shot, as well as the rest of the film's anamorphic imagery, is some of
the best I've seen on DVD this year, showcasing some wonderful cinematography
from Captain Phillips' Barry Ackroyd. The sound is great too, nicely
layering in background noise, as there are a lot of radio/TV reports, as well as
crowd chatter, to be heard. There is a Blu-ray edition of this film that was not
available for review; I wish it had been. I don't know what extras are on the
Blu-ray, but the DVD release only contains six meaningless deleted scenes and a
director's commentary.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

While not everyone is given a lot to work with (Jackie Earle Haley has a
cameo as a priest and Billy Bob Thornton has standard G-man lines), there isn't
a bad performance in the entire film. It is anchored by Giamatti, whose role, I
cannot stress enough, is critical to the film. His shock in watching Kennedy be
killed is wrenching, but it's his ever-growing fatigue from it all -- even over
just three days -- that you really feel. Dale is excellent as well as the
assassin's brother who became a victim too, with guilt-by-association
compounding his fresh confusion. Stealing every scene (albeit too few of them)
is Jacki Weaver as Oswald's mother, Marguerite. The Australian actress dazzles
as the mother who is near-crazy with blind devotion to her son Lee. I wanted her
in this more.

Closing Statement

While Parkland's's relationship to Oliver Stone's JFK is
tangential at best, the film still makes an interesting companion piece to the
1991 Oscar winner.